the same subject, written on the following day, is carefully preserved at Arlington House, by her great-granddaughter, Mrs. Mary Custis Lee. Mrs. Washington destroyed all of her husband's other letters to herself, a short time before her death.

It is not our design to follow Washington in his career as a soldier, or even as a statesman, for in these his field of action was far away from Mount Vernon-the object of our illustrations. His career in each was noble; and even in his defeats in battle, he never lost a particle of the dignity of his character, nor the esteem of his countrymen. His caution and prudence were sometimes misunderstood, but they were always found to be the guaranties of success. For nearly nine months he cautiously watched the British army in Boston, and waited for strength sufficient to attack it with success, while the people, and even the Congress, became impatient and clamored for battle. At length the proper time came, and with skill and energy he prepared to strike an annihilating blow. The enemy saw their peril, fled to their ships, and escaped to Halifax, while the whole continent rang with the praises of Washington. The Congress decreed a gold medal to the victor. Duvivier, of Paris, cut the die; and to Mount Vernon the glittering testimonial of a nation's gratitude was afterward borne, upon which was inscribed: "THE AMERICAN CONGRESS TO GEORGE WASHINGTON, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF ITS ARMIES, THE ASSERTORS OF FREEDOM: THE ENEMY FOR THE FIRST TIME PUT TO FLIGHT-BOSTON RECOVERED, 17TH MARCH, 1776."

Although excessively prudent, Washington was ever ready to strike a blow in the presence of greatest peril, when his judgment and inclination coalesced in recommending the per

GOLD MEDAL AWARDED TO WASHINGTON FOR THE DELIVERANCE OF BOSTON.

formance of the act. We see him with a handful of ill-disciplined, ill-fed, ill-clad soldiers, after a prudent flight of three weeks before a strong pursuing enemy, crossing a rapid river in the midst of floating ice, and darkness, and driving storm, and smiting a band of mercenary Germans at Trenton, who had been hired out by their avaricious princes to aid the British soldiery in butchering their fellow subjects. Victory followed the blow, and a few days afterward that victory was repeated at Princeton. Again the praises of Washington were upon every lip. The great Frederick of Prussia declared that the achievements of the American leader and his compatriots, between the twenty-fifth of December 1776, and the fourth of January, 1777-a space of ten days-were the most brilliant of any recorded in the annals of military action. A splendid flag, taken from the Hessians at Trenton, composed of two pieces of heavy white damask silk, bearing devices embroidered with gold thread, and the words FOR OUR PRINCE AND COUNTRY, in Latin, exquisitely wrought in needlework, was

presented to Washington. It was afterward hung up in the great hall at Mount Vernon, but only on one occasion, for Washington was careful

never to make even the

most trivial display of mementos of his own valor. This flag was his first trophy of the kind in the war for independence.

And all through the war, prudence, sagacity, skill, energy, and great wisdom, marked the acts of Washington. His last battle

was at Yorktown, where another trophy, similar to that at Trenton, was secured. It was the flag of the seventh British regiment, made of heavy twilled silk, six feet in length and five

feet four inches in width. The ground was blue; the central stripe of the cross red; the marginal ones white. In the centre was a crown, and beneath it a garter, with the usual inscription in Norman French-Evil be to him who evil thinketh-enclosing a full-blown rose, the floral emblem of England. This flag, with another, was presented to Washington by a resolution of the Congress, passed ten days after the victory, and was hung in the hall at Mount Vernon on the single occasion referred to. It had been sadly tattered during

the conflict. Until lately it occupied a place near the Hessian flag, in the Museum at Alexandria, where they were de posited by the late George Washington Parke Custis, and

appropriately labeled Alpha and Omega-the first and the last of the trophies won by Washington.

Lonely was the mansion at Mount Vernon without the master during the seven years and more that the war lasted. Yet it was by no means deserted. The only child of Mrs. Washington, John Parke Custis, with his there much of the time, for

wife and growing family, were Washington had written to him a few days after his appointment to the command of the army: "At any time, I hope it is unnecessary for me to say, that I am always pleased with your and Nelly's abidance at Mount Vernon, much less upon this occasion, when I think it absolutely necessary for the peace and satisfaction of your mother; a consideration which I have no doubt will have due weight with you both, and require no arguments to enforce." Neighbors and friends also came frequently to cheer the temporary widowhood of the mistress. Lund Washington, the master's relative and friend, was the faithful manager of the estate, and he scrupulously obeyed the injunction of the owner, who said: "Let the hospitality of the

house, with respect to the poor, be kept up. Let no one go away hungry. If any of this kind of people should be in want of corn, supply their necessities, provided it does not encourage them in idleness."

Nothing of importance, aside from the routine of plantation life, occurred at Mount Vernon after the summer of 1775, until 1781. At the former period, Lord Dunmore and his marauding followers, ascended the Potomac as far as Occoquan Falls, with the intention of making Mrs. Washington a prisoner, and desolating the estates of Gunston Hall and Mount Vernon. The Prince William militia gathered in large numbers to oppose him, and these, aided by a heavy storm, frustrated his lordship's designs, and he sailed down the river, after destroying some mills and other property.

Early in September, 1781, there was great commotion at Mount Vernon, greater than when, a few months before, small British armed vessels had come up the Potomac, plundering and destroying on every hand. One of these, on that occasion, had approached Mount Vernon with fire and sword, and Lund Washington had purchased the safety of the estate by giving the commander refreshments and supplies. For this the master of Mount Vernon rebuked him, saying, "It would have been a less painful circumstance to me to have heard that, in consequence of your non-compliance with their request, they had burned my house and laid my plantation in ruins.”

On the 9th of September, 1781, there was an arrival more startling to the dwellers upon the Mount Vernon estate than that of an armed enemy upon the neighboring waters. It was the unexpected arrival of the master himself. The allied French and American armies were then on their march toward